LET'S GET THE PARTY STARTED

Jody Feinberg The Patriot Ledger

Thursday

Dec 27, 2018 at 10:38 AM

Lucky us that Boston hosts such a fun, entertaining way to ring in the New Year. As the longest-running community New Year's Eve celebration, First Night Boston throws a party for kids and adults that showcases local and national talent and lights up the sky with two rounds of fireworks. It transforms the landmark Boston Public Library and Copley Plaza into canvases for dramatic, colorful light and pyrotechnic shows and delights with sparkling giant ice sculptures. And it’s all free.

Headliner Chadwick Stokes, who grew up in Sherborn and lives in Milton, remembers his visits with parents to First Night Boston.

“It’s a big responsibility and I’m honored to be in that slot,” said Stokes, who has been a singer and guitarist with the bands Dispatch and State Radio. “We’re going to make it fun for a big party with an upbeat set list that we hope people will want to dance to and keep warm.”

The festivities will be broadcast live on NBC 10 and Telemundo from 6 - 12:30 a.m., with uninterrupted coverage starting at 11 p.m. NECN will have live, uninterrupted coverage from 6:00 p.m. - 12:30 a.m., and NBC Sports New England will show portions of the show, starting at 11 p.m.

Chadwick Stokes and the Pintos will be the final act on the outdoor stage before the countdown to the fireworks and will include his three band members, as well as additional horn players and singers, including the Parkington Sisters from the Cape, who also play strings and accordion.

Since Conventures, Inc. started running First Night in 2016, it has consolidated the once sprawling event into six locations in and around Copley Square. The family-oriented portion starts at noon with organ, saxophone and vocal concerts in churches, improvisation, kids music and puppet shows, and arts and crafts, and it ends with a procession down Boylston Street and fireworks over the Boston Common at 7 p.m. These include performances by The Handel & Haydn Society, ImprovBoston, and Puppet Showplace Theater.

The evening line-up features STL Gold, a hip-hop duo that who won Album of the Year at the 2017 Boston Music Awards; Flight of Fire, a female rock band; Single by Sunday, an award-winning pop-punk rock band from Glasgow; and Sonika Vaid, an American Idol contestant from Weston who finished fifth in 2016.

For the first time, the 14-foot ice sculptures will be set in a 40-by-80 foot pavilion near Trinity Church to improve viewing and will showcase the wonders of the world, including the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, Leaning Tower of Pizza, a Sphinx, and others from every continent.

“We’re excited about the theme, and it will be more of a spectacle, because people won’t be crowded around them,” said Dusty Rhodes president of Conventures, Inc. of Boston.

First Night 2019 also will initiate a charity program that will promote the work of New England non-profits, and it has selected four that work to better the lives of girls and women – Project Hope, the Center for Women and Enterprise, Girls at Work, and Calling All Crows. In broadcasts preceding New Year’s Eve, the NBC’s local station, Channel 10, NECN and Telemundo will feature representatives from these groups, including Chadwick Stokes and his wife, Sybil Urmston, who founded Calling All Crows 10 years ago to develop educational and service projects to promote gender equity and reduce sexual harassment in the music industry. These organizations also will introduce their programs on the First Night stage.

“We felt we needed to give back and give these non-profits exposure,” Rhodes said. “We’re going to do that every year going forward.”

That’s one way Boston will celebrate hope and community for now and the future as it rings in 2019.

Reach Jody Feinberg at jfeinberg@patriotledger.com. Follow her on Twitter@JodyF_Ledger.